LORAIN, Ohio — Being planted in good soil is key to a healthy harvest. A Lorain church is sowing seeds that are nourishing a community physically and spiritually.
“Originally our urban farm, which we call Solidarity Urban Farms, started with the simple idea that we wanted to do something with the food waste from our church’s community meals,” said Fr. Alex Barton, Episcopal Church of the Redeemer.
“It really became more of a space to grow healthy food for our neighbors and then as we kept going, we realized there was a lot of kids who wanted to hang out with us, so we started doing more youth programming as well.”
The program started four years ago with one plot of land at 12th Street and Lexington Avenue. Today, the church owns ten vacant lots and gardens on seven of them.
“We had the capacity to farm on more land because of the response from our neighbors,” said Community Outreach Coordinator Jenna Smith. “Our community meals have also drastically increased.”
While the harvest is used for weekly free community meals, the public can also purchase what’s available. EBT is accepted. The money goes back to the mission.
The farm stand typically starts in mid-June and happens every Saturday.
“We have a flower plot just a block south of here, so we’re able to take bouquets and sell those here, but also in various farmers markets in Cleveland and we have craft festivals that help with our financial sustainability,” said Smith.
“As a nonprofit, one of the challenges is finding a way to ensure that the profit that we’re making is able to keep us going from year to year, so everything that we earn is cycled back into our network.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urban agriculture contributes 15 to 20% of the global food supply. It can also increase food access and green spaces in parts of a city that are historically disadvantaged. Urban agriculture can help cities reduce problems related to pollution and climate change.
“We think it's important not only to do good things like feed your neighbor, clothe the naked, all those kind of things, but it's also super important to live together so that you can share those experiences so that we know we're not alone when we're facing the harder parts of life,” said Burton.
